I posted a brief tasting note in another thread, and Bob suggested that I cross-post. So, here is a rewritten, expanded tasting note. I'm doing this all from memory - I don't have any notes.

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A couple weeks ago I had the last bottle of my '03 Clos Henri Sauvignon Blanc, which is from Marlborough, New Zealand. The first note is from soon after its' release, and the second note is recent.

2003 Clos Henri Sauvignon Blanc $23
Fairly bursting with ripe fruit, with a strong grapefruit component. Firm acidity, but in harmonious balance. Just what I love in a Sauvignon Blanc, and a little unusual in my experience for something from NZ. Quite a beautiful, young wine. It's from the new New Zealand project by Henri Bourgeois, the Sancerre producer. No one would mistake this for Sancerre - it's a new-world style through and through. It certainly shows the precise focus that an experienced Sancerre producer might bring to the table though.

2003 Clos Henri Sauvignon Blanc
Tasted March '07. The nose has developed a lovely touch of petrol, something that I very much enjoy in a Riesling, but I'd never experienced it with Sauvignon Blanc before. On the palate, some of the fruit had faded, but the remaining fruit flavor was melded with a potpourri of secondary flavors - floral, nutty and so forth. Altogether a wonderful, and may I say, even profound wine. Although it's drinking beautifully now, I think it might have continued to develop for another year or two. I think I'm going to get some of the '05 vintage and put it away for a couple years!

Thought I had posted on this earlier. Was reminded when I saw the newer vintage on the shelf.
This `05 has to be one of the best NZ SB I have tasted recently and matches the KC nicely. I cannot mention Saint Clair cos it ain`t here in AB!!

Light straw colour, nose has some tropical fruit but more grass and gooseberry. Nice.
Long finish, good depth of usual fruits with peach papaya to forefront.Lots of sour citrus on the end as it warms. Like this one!!

$22 Cdn.

**** just opened the `06 Shingle Peak after the recent discussions here. I have not seen such a pale watery SB in quite a while.I thought the `05 vintage was a great wine. This one tastes right on, stay tuned forumites!!!

I would love to do a side-by-side comparative tasting of `05/`06s from NZ. Sues website has some very interesting tasting notes on both vintages and a few forumites here have come up with some interesting posts of late.
The `05 from this winery was a terrific wine and I was only too happy to purchase this new vintage for around $22 Cdn.

Colour. Very pale, quite watery looking. Just a brief hint of straw, one of the lightist wines I have ever seen.

Nose. Pungent, herbal, grass, lime, stonefruit. Does not appear to have a tropical fruit compo.

Palate. Initial mouthfeel entry is dry, zingy grapefruit finish with little tropical fruit flavours. I served quite chilled but did not notice much change as it warmed up. fresh, lively, melon gooseberry, passionfruit.
"Very dry, guava" one taster thought, I noted the dryness and the cutting acidity. I have one more `05 here so should pull and check it out whilst my memory is fresh here. Have to admit, this wine was not what I expected, vastly different style. Iliked it, wonder what a few months in the cellar will do?

N: Well developed, fragrant and subtle with notes of ripe rhubarb and citrus fruit with a touch of cream. P: Quite rich, burnished, mouth-filling and complex yet fresh with appealing acidity; fragrant with similar aromas to the nose plus grapefruit notes emerging strongly and traces of honeyed hints towards the finish.

This wine has deepened a lot compared with my memories of two previous bottles drunk more than a year ago. They were like my concise note of the 2006 - "nicely crisp with good fragrance". This bottle was a good deal more than that and perhaps now deserves a finer and richer fish dish than the simple mussels.

According to the back label this wine sees some wood and in Halliday's 1999 guide a dash of Sémillon is also mentioned. The closure for the Belgian market was traditional natural cork.

As an aside, I have found this terrific SB from Chile. The `06 Arboleda showed up at a local Chile wine festival here in Edmonton. Chadwick operation so a dependable bunch there. Very much a Loire style wine I thought and not bad for $17 Cdn. Stock up..so back to NZ eh.

Pale straw yellow color; clear, a bit lighter on the edges; good to very good aroma of grapefruit and other citrus notes, with some grassy elements; moderate acidity; intense fruit tastes with a sweetish impression and grassy notes; light mouth feel; short to medium finish.

I tasted this wine eight separate times in an effort to decide how cold it should be for my maximum enjoyment. I poured a single bottle into eight of those little airline bottles, and kept them all at 35 degrees F.; glasses were kept in the same refrigerator. I drank the eight small bottles on separate evenings spread over two and a half weeks, in each case without food, using the small Riedel tasting glasses. My thermometer came from France, and seems to be fairly accurate.

I found four elements in this wine – aside from a great burpability quotient at all temperature settings. (Burpability is that lovely after taste you get from the taste of a burp long after you finish drinking the wine.) And, at all temperatures, I loved the aroma that remained in the empty glass for fifteen minutes or longer.

Acidity – more pronounced the warmer the wine up to 50 F, then falling off quickly.Aroma – about the same at all temperatures.Taste – a bit more pronounced from 45 F. to 55 F., then falling off quickly.Oiliness – I found a pleasant oily character in the mouth feel of this wine, especially at the colder temperatures.

35 to 40 F – a great thirst quencher, but perhaps too restrained.40 to 50 F – pleasurable drinking.50 to 65 F – less and less pleasure.

I had the eighth glass at 45 F, which is where I would start drinking a full glass in the future, based on this small sample.

Responses:

Garr: Another Ross tour de force ... or is that ...Tour de farce? No ... certainly not! Great experiment, Bob. And nothing the matter with your TN, either!

Mark Cochard: You really have gone too far. 8 bottles to determine the best temperature (I know small bottles). More power to you. I would agree somewhere around 50 degrees F is probably the right temp for maximum enjoyability, but for flavor intensity I would think you might push 55 degrees F. I don't understand your ratings scale 3 stars, I assume it means you like it(is that 3 out of 5 or 3 out of 4. I enjoy your research, keep'em coming.

Ross: I should have mentioned that Robin put me up to it! Down below you'll see a thread where I asked what the best temperature was for enjoyment. Robin suggested, if I was game, that I try several different levels, and you've seen the result.

In practice, I think that starting out at 45 and dawdling, as I usually do, will end up with the wine being consumed on average around 50 degrees, some on the low side, some on the high. Science isn't everything.

Oh, in answer to Mark's question about the stars, here's my answer -- still pretty accurate after 40,000+ TNs:

The stars are mostly for retrieving purposes in my files of tasting notes, now almost 5000 different wines. Here's a brief description I wrote at the time of reaching the 2000 tasting note level:

Technical note: my TNs are typed into Word, and to count TNs, I use the Replace All function and replace the star symbols; each TN rates a wine from one to five stars, and Word gives me the number of replacements and therefore the number of TNs. The stars are of my own concocting:
One star -- avoid, drink anything else;
Two stars -- ok if there is absolutely nothing better around, don't buy any;
Three stars -- pleasant, what's next, don't buy any more;
Four stars -- lovely stuff, best to not buy too much more;
Five stars -- "Janet, stop me from trying to buy the vineyard!

And, on a more serious note, Randy Bruckner started this ball rolling with the following note:

Randy Bruckner: I tried a bottle and snapped up two cases. Discounters have it for as low as $12 a bottle -- it ought to be a crime:

2006 Saint Clair, Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand, $15. This stunner grabs you from the very start with its intense gooseberry and passionfruit aromas. Crisp in the mouth, the flavors are every bit as intense – passionfruit, limes and grapefruit flavors abound. New Zealand has raised the bar on Sauvignon Blanc with this one. Buy by the case; 93/94.

Randy was absolutely right; I was able to find six bottles, and we have gone through three, all with great enjoyment. I really can't add much to Randy's note, except that there was limited EGA.

Cloudy Bay Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough New Zealand 2006. Kevin Judd and Eveline Fraser, winemakers. http://www.cloudybay.co.nz/ My reference SB from New Zealand -- very rich with limes and grapefruit flavors, mineral notes, hints of tomato, delicious and refreshing, showing beautifully tonight. 5*. $22. [Chris Regina, Winecentric: "The 2004 and 2005 weren't up to what this legendary New Zealand winery has built its name on. The 2006? Welcome back!" -- Several people at the tasting mentioned the same thing; I haven't had Cloudy Bay for five years, but remembered it as being as good then, as it was tonight.] [Incidentally, Cloudy Bay was the only winery that ran out of wine, after two hours. Another pourer left early for personal reasons. But the big guys were pouring until ten minutes before closing.]

Wow, whole bunch of great info there Bob R. As usual, we can rely on you for all the interesting stuff!! Remember those early Montana`s Bob...mushy peas, asparagus, green peppers!! Thank goodness style has evolved the way it has.

I just saw the notes about RS in NZ Sauvignon. A number of them seem to contain very noticeable RS, more than 5g/L, although it's more palatable than in Chardonnay because it's balanced by high acidity.

I will copy my note into this thread. If the stand alone note needs to be deleted to prevent cross-posting you are free to do so.

2006 Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc

Color: Light straw

Nose: Pronounced nose of citrus, hay, and good ol’ cat pee.

Taste: Silky texture. Concentrated citrus, lots of grapefruit and a crisp minerality. Enough vegetal character to make it interesting without overwhelming the fruit. Long dry finish. Probably the most powerful of the Crawford SB’s I have tasted. Definitely a good wine that I can recommend. I would like to taste it side by side with the ’00, my favorite Crawford vintage to date.

Everyone should look out for the `07 which has just showed up on the shelf here in AB.